Mail box



July 28,1925. 1,547,588

0. O. KOLSTAD MAIL BOX Filed NOV. 19'. 1923 A O (DA 0157A 0.

' Patented July 28 1925. i

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

OLE O. KOLSTAD, OF DULUTH, MINNESOTA.

MAIL BOX.

Application filed November 19, 1923. Serial No. 675,442.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, OLE O. KoLs'rAn, a citizen of the United States, residing at Duluth, in the county of St. Louis and State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Mail Boxes, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

This invention "relates to wall receptacles and has special reference to a batter of built in mail boxes, particularly adapted for apartment houses.

The principal object is to produce a battery of such boxes especially convenient of access by the mail carrier.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will apppear in the further description thereof.

Referring now to the accompanying drawing, forming part of this application, in which like reference characters indicate like parts:

Figure 1 is a vertical section on the line 11 of Figure 2; v

Figure 2 is a front elevation,pa rtly broken away, of a battery of three of the improved boxes; and

Figure 3 is an elevation of the boxcontrolling mechanism appearing internally of the wall.

In carrying out the embodiment of the" invention here illustrated, a rectangularly shaped opening is formed in the wall of the building where it chances to be desirable for the installation of a mail box, said 0 ening occurring preferably between and adiacent to the studding in the wall of the building, one of. which is illustrated at 1, and the upper" and lower extremities of the opening are reinforced by the lintel 2 and sill 3, respectively.

The individual mail in form and vertically elongated,being made to nest snugly withm the opening in the wall, and, of course, may be of any number desired within a single opening, or a plurality of. said openingsmay be formed side by side or grouped in any desired manner.

The back of theindividual mail boxes illustrated in detail is shown at 4, while the if desired, of the wall, the same being illustrated at 6. The lower part of each box is provided with the usual outproprietors of such 7 doors l0 wardly swinging door 7, pivotally hinged as at 8 and controlled by an individual lock indicated at 9. The upper portion of each box, in the illustration hereshown, is provided with a'similar door 10, pivotally hinged as at 11, and swingable outwardly and downwardly as illustrated in dotted lines, Figure 1, thus rendering the upper end of each box accessible through said door opening for the deposit of mail by the mail carrier.

These boxes are made, as is evident, suf ficiently long vertically to receive for example the larger magazines and newspapers, so that all such belonging to individual mail box, may be safely deposited therein free from interference by unauthorized persons.

The control of the deposit openings 1 pre fer to accomplish by means of a horizontally disposed shaft 12, rotatably installed through the upper end of the battery of boxes and approximately centrall thereof. This shaft extends outwardl of t e battery of boxes at one side thereo and if for example another battery of boxes is installed adjacent thereto, tend through this second battery and control same.

' In the upper corner of each box the shaft 4 is preferably squared, or in fact may be squared its entire length except at the ends has fixed thereto a crank arm arm 13 is pivotally attached as at 14 an arm or rod 15 which upon the other end is pivotally attached as at 16 to the inner upper edge of'the door 10, said arm being arched centrallyas at 17 to permit of same assum- "mg a position centrally through the axial boxes are rectangular line of the shaft 12, the object of which will be hereinafter described.

the same shaft may ex- Transverse .the. upper and lower borders of'the-o'peni'ng formed in the wall for the mail boxes,

I provide reinforcing angles 18 and 19 vas a marginal finish for said walls of the o ening and against which the doors 10 and abut respectively. By the above described connection it is apparent that the may .be swung open or closed by the rotation of the shaft 12 and when. closed such door or doors cannot be opened by the outward pull from the exterior thereof as. o lever17-wi1l be on dead center in the contr I this crank arm,

respect to the shaft 12. Even if the latter were free to rotate the doors could not be opened from such source.

The control and rotation of the shaft 12 isaccomplished by the short crank arm 20, being rigidly fixed thereto centrally of the battery of boxes in any convenient position, preferably within the confines of the wall of the building in which the battery of boxes is installed. Pivotally attached to as at 21, isthe depending lever or rod 22, which is practically the full length of the height of the box and upon its lower end is pivotally attached, as at 23, to the crank arm 24, mounted upon the end of the short shaft which is rotatably' mounted in any desired manner, as for example within the channel saddle 26 fixed to the outermost edge of the wall. To the outwardly projecting end of the shaft 25 is attached a short operating lever 27 by Wl'llCh the shaft 25 is rotated, and the latter carries fixed thereto a hub like member 28 having a notch therein for registering engage ment with the locking bolt 29 reciprocably 1 controlled in any desired manner by the lock indicated at 30, the same being controlled by a key of any individual construction, and I prefer to refer 'to same as a master key, as by it, access to all of the boxes in one or more batteries may be had simultaneously.

It is obvious that the locks for the boxes may be of. the standard type as required by the Post Office Department. Furthermore it might be stated that this arrangement of boxes and control therefor was on the first day of November 1923 formally approved by the Post Office Department.

Above each individualbox and upon the fixed wall surrounding same, preferably on the reinforcing member 18, is placed the name or number of the individual proprietor of said box, so that when the doors 10 of the boxes are opened, the identification of each box remains in pla'in view of the depositor, so that the possibility of mistake in making deposits therein may be reduced to a m nimum. In each of the doors 10 I prefer to form a slot 31 so that if no mail is to be deposited larger than would conveniently enter such common slot, the operation of the master control mechanism may be avoided.

From the above it is apparent that I have devised an exceedingly simple and efficient battery of receptacles which may be multiplied or increased as desired.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is: i

1. The combination with a battery of mail boxes of the type described, each having an individually controlled door for access thereto, of a deposit door spaced upwardly from the first mentioned door in each receptacle and means controlled by a master key common to all of the deposit doors'for simultaneously operating same, said means comprising a rotatable transverse shaft within the upper portion of the boxes and linked to each ofthe deposit doors.

2. The combination with a battery of mail boxes of theitype described, each having an individually controlled door for access thereto, of adeposit door spaced upwardly from the first mentioned door in each receptacle, and means controlled by a master key cominon to all of the deposit doors for si- In testimony whereof I hereunto afiix my I signature in the presence of two witnesses:

OLE O. KOLSTAD.

\Vitnesses: i

S. G. BRONSON, S. GEO. STEVENB. 

